Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
There. Energy crisis solved. All we need to do are three things:
1. Drill. Here, and up north. And get that crude across the country, to the Gulf, by building the Keystone XL pipeline.
2. Build new nuke plants. Like they have in France.
3. Start bombarding hydrogen pellets with laser beams. I'm serious. From the (UK) Daily Mail:
Britain has joined forces with America to investigate a hi-tech new way of producing 'clean energy' - not from wind or waves, but from firing huge arrays of high-powered lasers at pellets of hydrogen.
The process causes the hydrogen atoms to fuse together into helium - the same reaction found in hydrogen bombs and stars such as our Sun - but in a controlled reaction that could power homes and businesses.
Recent experiments at America's National Ignition Facility (NIF), have produced huge bursts of energy from the technology - using a stadium-sized building housing an array of 192 lasers which fire a 500-terawatt flash at a drop of hydrogen atoms just 1mm across.
Here's what it looks like, or is supposed to look like:
Even more cool:
Laser fusion was expected to take longer to achieve than magnetic containment fusion, but recent results from NIF have hinted that the break-even point in laser fusion might happen earlier than was thought possible. A similar project in the UK, called HIPER, the High Power Laser Energy Research began work in 2005.
'NIF director Ed Moses said, 'Our goal is to have ignition within the next couple of years.'
Ignition would be a self-sustaining reaction that would release vast amounts of energy far surpassing the 'break even' point.
Last week, a single shot of NIF's laser released, for a tiny fraction of a second, more power than was being consumed in the entire world.
To hit the point of 'ignition', that energy release needs to rise by a factor of around 1,000. The technology challenges are considerable.
And even better:
John Parris, of Europe's HiPER project, said 'This is save-the-world science. Fusion is the only serious answer to future energy demands - this is the energy Holy Grail. The human race has a massive, ravenous demand for power. Fusion will be an ideal solution in the clean energy mix for the future.'
NIF, however, is working already. The facility uses pellets of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium - found in 'heavy water' - and tritium, and fires lasers to compress the pellets to a few hundredths of its starting size.
And of course, you guessed it:
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace claim that research into fusion diverts funding from research into proven technologies such as wind and wave power.
Bombard hydrogen with lasers! That's our (slightly clumsy) rallying cry!
It will be technology that makes life better and cheaper to power. Always has been, always will be.
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Comments:
Aug '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Greenpeace won't be happy until their are no more humans on the planet.
Apr '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
And the kicker is, they won't even be around to gloat.
Sep '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Technology has already given us more Nat Gas than we can use in 200 years all we need to do is start using it.
Aug '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Gen. Victor Ball
And the kicker is, they won't even be around to gloat. · Sep 12 at 1:17pm
Ha! I don't know that they've thought it through to the end...
Apr '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Wait a minute, wasn't this Doc Oc's plan in Spider-Man 2? See how that turned out.
May '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
This is why the Cold Fusion experiments of Fleishmann & Pons were taken so seriously back in 1989. Too, bad their results could not be replicated.
Separate question: Why is a pipeline required to send crude from Canada to Louisiana? Why not just build the required refinery in Canada? It can't be any more work to build a refinery than to build a 2000+ mile pipeline and all it requires.
If I were Canada, I would want my own refinery thank you very much.
Jan '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
That last quote should read:
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace claim that research into fusion diverts funding from research into technologies, such as wind and wave power, that have proven to be failures.
I've wondered for the last decade what was happening with laser fusion research. It was starting to show great promise as far back as the 80's, then suddenly sometime in the 90's it seemed to completely disappear. It's very encouraging to hear that the research may actually be approaching fruition.
Dec '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
We could make the enviroweenies briefly happier if we used wind/solar to power the lasers. That could work to get this past the break-even point, after which they would be furious that abundant energy became available and crushed their dreams. By then it would be too late!
Jul '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Thank you Rob.
I have often thought that our most pressing foreign policy issue is energy independence. Imagine if the middle east had the same foreign policy significance as Bangladesh or Rwanda. It would be very clarifying.
Energy independence means we have no interest in any resources anywhere in the sand; neither as a customer, nor an imperialist, nor a colonizer. See also Mr. Gilley's post re: Ron Paul, and the long thread earlier today delving into the concept of "occupation". Our only necessary connection to the region would be the treaty obligations with Israel.
It has long pained me to know that our money goes to Saudi Royals, who contribute to erstwhile Islamic charities, who build madrassas in pakistan, who then develop the next generation of jihadis.
May '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Except as far as I know we get most of our oil from Canada and Mexico.
Feb '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
See the following (I didn't make this up):
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
“May we live long and die out”
"Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense."
(I can't seem to post the associated emblem image)
Edited on September 12, 2011 at 11:18pmJul '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Gwen,
You are probably correct; however even if we only currently import 10 % (or whatever the %) from the middle east, my point still holds. Our NATO allies also rely heavily on those oil resources, so we still are tied up with the region. Just imagine if Hussein's invasion of Kuwait had the same importance as the civil war in the Congo. The Congolese people are suffering, but our boots are not on the ground there.
If cold fusion works, share it with the world, and maybe the Iranian nuclear party runs of cash.
May '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
·
How about: Laser here, laser now!
Mar '11
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Snow Bird
See the following (I didn't make this up):
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
“May we live long and die out”
"Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense."
(I can't seem to post the associated emblem image) · Sep 12 at 2:09pm
Edited on Sep 12 at 02:18 pm
One has to say this for them at least they're walking the walk.
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Back in December, 1971, when I was a Rhodes Scholarship candidate, I met at the interviews a physics major from the University of Texas who was working on this. We both got the award, and he did a D.Phil. on fusion at Oxford. But nothing came of it for forty years. If this time the hopes are justified, it is very big news, and it will strengthen us immeasurably vis-a-vis the Arabs and the Iranians. It might even free Europe from its dependence on the Russians and the Arabs. This is no small thing.
Oct '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Someday, I want to take a Greenpeace nihilist to Africa, to show them what the alternative to their hated consumer-driven capitalist system is.
Aug '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
The only common sense answer to the question of which energy sources we should develop is, simply,
"All of them."
Oct '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
Laser (inertial confinement) fusion is promising, but after decades of work magnetic confinement fusion is also approaching the stage where one can envision it coming on line as as practical energy source in the latter half of this century. With proper funding, we'd probably have had plasma fusion by 1990. The leading project in the world is ITER, which is presently under construction in France.
Here are videos which show the scale of this project:
May '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
We have a National Ignition Facility? How big is the key? And is there a giant car battery out in the New Mexico desert?
Dec '10
Re: Pipelines, Nukes, and Laser Fusion
" 500-terawatt flash"
That is more than 400,000 times1.21 gigawatts required for the flux capacitor. Better go talk to Christopher Llyod.
-Michael J Fox